Tuesday, September 08, 2009

I am away from my blog for a couple of weeks. This is an experiment in posting some conversation topics while I am gone.

The two questions to answer relevant to the statement below is are:

• Is it true?

• Is it important?

(12) The motto, "In God We Trust" really means, "If you do not trust in God, then you are not one of us." Putting this sign in any public place is as morally repugnant as putting up a sign that says, "If you are Jewish, you are not one of us," or any other similar expression of religious bigotry.

2 comments:

The interpretation that "you're not one of us" is one possibility, but that doesn't make it "true". It might also mean "We're so insecure about our ability to manage our own destiny that we need to turn to superstition to feel better about it". Maybe we could change it to "In Rabbits Feet We Trust"?

It is an important issue because it is not a universal statement of belief for the entire population - it certainly does not represent me. If it's intended to be blanket requirement for citizenship, then we should say so and declare a theocracy. Then I could get refugee status in Canada.

It sickens me to the point of crossing the motto off my paper money with a Sharpie.

About Me

When I was in high school, I decided that I wanted to leave the world better off than it would have been if I had not existed. This started a quest, through 12 years of college and on to today, to try to discover what a "better" world consists of. I have written a book describing that journey that you can find on my website. In this blog, I will keep track of the issues I have confronted since then.